Release Changelog

Scope. Only normative changes appear here: new or modified MUST / SHOULD / MAY clauses, checklist row changes, audit-log or evidence-model changes, and changes to shipped audit/skill behavior that adopters can observe. Tooling, coverage lifts, internal refactors, and CI gate adjustments live in git log rather than this file. Squash-merged commits to main therefore do not all map one-to-one to CHANGELOG entries.

The format follows Keep a Changelog. Specification releases use SemVer bump semantics with compact patch-zero notation:

• A major bump marks a change that breaks existing conformance claims.
• A minor bump adds or tightens normative requirements.
• A patch bump covers corrections that do not change what a conforming repository must do.

For the specification and companion templates, patch-zero releases are written as MAJOR.MINOR (0.1, 1.2) rather than MAJOR.MINOR.0. Patch releases are explicit only when they exist (0.1.1, 1.2.1). Maintainers should prefer minor releases for meaningful specification changes and reserve patch releases for narrow corrections to an already published minor line.

Release tag versus tool versions. A Git release tag such as v0.1 is the specification release and pins the whole adopter-facing bundle at that commit: specification, guide, checklist template, audit-log template, audit skill, examples, bootstrap, collector, stamper, and validator. The tag version is the spec version. It is not the same thing as BOOTSTRAP_VERSION, collector_version, or validator_version; those are implementation versions stamped into audit artifacts so auditors can identify which runtime produced a result. Mention runtime/tool changes in a release entry only when adopters can observe the behavior. Internal refactors, test-only changes, coverage lifts, and implementation version bumps with no adopter-visible behavior stay in git log.

The catalog’s specVersion is the adopter-facing specification release, while schemaVersion is the catalog JSON shape version used by tooling. Patch releases may update specVersion without changing schemaVersion.

Every released entry lists the release date (the day the version lands on main).

[0.1.2] — 2026-05-10

Changed

• Added stable generated anchors to specification pillar and clause headings so internal links remain readable and deterministic.
• Expanded adopter-facing reference docs for the rule catalog, glossary, audit profile, and threat model without changing conformance obligations.
• Clarified audit artifact terminology and catalog/checklist relationships to match the current generated audit templates.

This patch release does not change rule semantics, checklist rows, audit frontmatter fields, or conformance obligations.

[0.1.1] — 2026-05-05

Changed

• AI-CONTRIBUTOR-RULE-CATALOG.json is now the canonical source for rule IDs, normative rule text, pillar and clause metadata, conformance-level metadata, checklist row bindings, coverage data, and generated audit-template version fields.
• Generated projections now render from Markdown templates plus the rule catalog: AI-CONTRIBUTOR-SPECIFICATION.md, .ai-contributor-audit/AI-CONTRIBUTOR-CHECKLIST.md, AI-CONTRIBUTOR-COVERAGE.md, AI-CONTRIBUTOR-AUDIT.md, and .ai-contributor-audit/AI-CONTRIBUTOR-AUDIT-LOG.md.
• Checklist rule-table ordering is now mechanical and may differ from earlier hand-authored ordering, while visible AIC-* IDs and checklist semantics remain unchanged.
• The specification clause section now uses a nested heading hierarchy: pillars under ###, clauses under ####, and scope groups under #####. Rule IDs and normative text are unchanged.
• Non-normative explanatory clause prose was moved into scope guidance, definitions, or the adoption guide so the generated specification clause body contains only catalog-owned structure and normative rule bullets.
• Shipped audit templates now carry spec_version: "0.1.1" to match the current specification release.

This patch release does not change rule semantics or conformance obligations.

[0.1] — 2026-05-03

Initial public version of the AI Contributor Specification.